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What Color is My Identity? Presentation by Dr. Linda García Merchant

When: 
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 -
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Where: 
Frank Waters Rm 105, UNM Zimmerman Library
Cost: 
FREE & Open to All
Presenter/s: 
Dr. Linda García Merchant

* NOTE: Due to recent changes at Zimmerman Library, they ask for an ID at the front. We are also making this event accesible online through Zoom, register here *

Dr. García Merchant will present a multimodal experience using still images, film, and creative writing to explore what it means to grow up during a time before biculturalism. Her talk will explore the following questions: What does it mean to have an identity that begins without definition, then live through a navigation of derogatory language and “culture rejection”? How does identity formation persevere and evolve through moments of forced upon definition? What happens when it seems/feels like the only response to it all can be to pause, reflect and not respond as an act of defense, accusation, or rebuttal? She will explore the tensions, complexities, and the joys of being AfroChicana.
   
García Merchant holds a PhD in Chicana/Latina Literary and Cultural Studies and Digital Humanities from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She is the co-founder (with Maria Cotera) of the Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective at the University of Texas-Austin and a Digital Humanities Consultant on the Afro-Chicanx Digital Humanities Project: Memories, Narratives, and Oppositional Consciousness of Black Diasporas, a cross-institutional and cross-regional comparative research project funded through Crossing Latinidades, an Andrew C. Mellon Foundation initiative.  

This event is in collaboration with and sponsored by: Crossing Latinidades, Departments of Chicana/o Studies, Latin American & Iberian Institute, Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, El Centro de la Raza, Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, University Libraries Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections, and the Mellon Foundation.